TESTIMONY

David Affalter: No More Nicotine

By Robert Hull with Ken HulmeThe 700 Club

CBN.com
 David Affalter started smoking as a teenager. It wasn’t long before he was addicted.

"I guess you could call me a chain smoker," David tells The 700 Club. "Socializing with friends, I’d probably always have a cigarette going."

He tried to stop several times, but would often pull his cigarettes back out of the trash.

"There were times when I wished I wasn’t smoking anymore or I’ve tried to quit. You look at a pack of cigarettes and go, ‘Man, I wish I didn’t have to do this.’ Of course everybody who knows what it’s like to smoke or to have that nicotine habit, you know how hard it is to break that. I felt powerless to stop."

He thought chewing tobacco would be better for his health and exchanged one addiction for another.

"Chewing had what I thought was a stronger power over me. It just got to the point I was always doing it. You could chew snuff at work. Nobody noticed, where leaf tobacco was a little obvious."

David worked nights for years and would come home in time to watch the morning broadcast of The 700 Club. He says, "I was watching this, and Pat said, ‘This is the time when we’re going to pray for you.' This particular day he mentioned chewing tobacco."

What's nicotine? It's another plant, it's tobacco. You're a slave to it. You don't want to be a slave to a vegetable. You're God's child! Live like it. Let Him come in and take over. And you say, 'From this moment on, I'm going to be free.' And then day by day by day by day, you reaffirm that commitment, 'In Jesus' name, I'm free.

"I sat there and I watched him and Terry on TV that day, and I thought I’d really like to do this. I heard what he said about God saying, if you quit right now, zip, that’s it. Then you won't have this anymore. You won’t have anymore cravings or desires. The 'want to' is going to be gone. I prayed with him."

David immediately got rid of all his tobacco products.

"I wasn’t going to just throw it away. I flushed it. There’s no way I can go back and retrieve it later. I dumped it all. Before the end of that day, I noticed that I haven’t reached for it. I haven’t had that craving or anything. I don’t have any desire whatsoever for this stuff."

Ten years have passed and David has never gone back.

"I had no desire anymore. There was no want to, no cravings, no desire whatsoever. I mean, it was gone. I’ve told people it was like I had never smoked or chewed before. It’s gone, and I haven’t ever tried it since. He set me free."